You all remembered to set your clocks forward, right? Good. I love having Daylight Saving Time back, generally, but this morning it's all a little abrupt and painful. At least it's warmish.

Puzzles like today's - the add-a-letter-(or-two) type - live or die by the quality of the wacky phrases created. Today there seemed to be equal parts life and death. I doubt I'll soon forget USE THE FORCEPS, LUKE, but I kind of wish I could, both because ... well, the image is displeasing, and the original phrase "Use the Force, Luke," while absolutely verbatim from the first "Star Wars" movie, is not the most in-the-language phrase. It's not even the most in-the-language Force-related phrase ("May the Force be with you" takes that honor). Adding "P.S." to "TO" in GOING TOPS THE POLLS feels awfully ... off, and the phrase is just ungainly and meaningless. I wish the clue on BULLET-PROOF CARPS had been fish-related, even though I realize that the plural of CARP (fish) is CARP. I just like the idea of genetically-engineered killer fish better than I do the absurdity of a non-material entity being "BULLET-PROOF." The other theme answers seem fine, and I there something so completely absurd about ASPS FOR ME that I even kind of like it. Sounds like Cleopatra's ordering her death from a menu at a restaurant.

47A: Advice to actor Perry when delivering a baby? ("Use the forcePS, Luke!") - I just now remembered who "Luke Perry" is. HA ha. Dylan.

67A: Cleopatra's last request? ("asPS for me")

86A: Travel is voted most popular? (going toPS the polls)

92A: Result of a good basement waterproofing years ago? (long time, no seePS)

115A: Unassailable beefs? (bullet-proof carPS)

Despite having a basically competent overall design, this puzzle made me gag in a few places. The first gag is probably particular to me - I recently said that EBOLI is on my list of "Do Not Use" words, mainly because it's such an obvious crosswordy crutch. You never want to use EBOLI. Nobody wants to use EBOLI. Sometimes you have to use EBOLI, I guess, but I have decided to treat it like poison (more poisonous than E. COLI, ironically). So boo to this word - though the "B" gives us BWANA (79A: Sir, in Swahili), which makes me laff. Anything with an initial letter string of "BW" is inherently funny. Sadly, EBOLI looks good compared to some other clunkers in this puzzle. STIED!? (108A: Like a pig in a pen). "Boy, Jeb, you STIED that pig good." Or, better yet:

"Hey, look at that pig ... it's STIED""Tied for what?""STIED!""I don't see any cord or leash or rope ... what the hell are you talking about?"Etc.

STIED, indeed. But even STIED looks decent compared to the least appealing teenage dating move of all time - I'm speaking, of course, about the ACNED REGRAB (5D: Pimply + 6D: Get a better grip on). Man, that's ugly. On so many levels, That Is Ugly. First there's ACNED ... and then, immediately thereafter, REGRAB. One two, with no rest in between. Show a little mercy. At least spread the pain out.

MEG Whitman headlines the "New To Me" category (1A: Former eBay chief Whitman), though I feel like her name was in contention for some kind of political post ... maybe she was an economic advisor to McCain? Let's see ... whoa, she was his national campaign co-chair. That's some good, if hazy, memory I got there. I have no memory of this ELAH movie (71D: "In the Valley of _____" (2007 film)), starring Tommy Lee Jones and Charlize Theron. The Valley of Elah, I'm told (by Wikipedia), is the place where the Israelites were encamped when David fought Goliath. Other question marks in this puzzle include the clue on ROSE - I know what a tea rose is, but ROSE tea is not familiar (124A: Word before or after tea) - and AQUIFER, which clearly, by its name, bears water, but which I insisted on spelling AQUAFER for a while (27A: Freshwater source). Never heard of Gus KAHN (10D: Gus who wrote the words to "Makin' Whoopee"). The very phrase "makin' whoopee" makes me cringe. Makes me think of Bob Eubanks leering suggestively at newlyweds. Oh, and I don't know this LIAM guy (53D: Irish folk musician O'Flynn). Let's hear what he's got to say for himself:

[This is the music the cops will play to force me out of my hiding hole]

Bullets:

4A: Steal from, as in Grand Theft Auto (carjack) - a fresh and contemporary (if violent) clue. I like it.

72A: Fashion photographer Herb (Ritts) - His name feels very early 90s to me. It also gives off a hint of Madonna. Why? OMG he not only directed Madonna's "Cherish" music video, he took THIS photo (which was hanging on the wall of my best friend's dorm room in college):

90A: Athlete who won the 1978 International Peace Award (Pele) - there are apparently a billion ways to clue this guy. Seems like every other month he's in the grid with some long descriptive clue like this.

11D: What the 300 defended (Sparta) - still haven't read the book or seen the movie. Heading out to "Watchmen" later today.

16D: Coachman's carriage (landau) - one of the many carriage types I learned from crosswords.

25D: Gum-producing plant (guar) - I remember GUAR gum from some 1980s ice cream commercial where someone was reading, with puzzlement and barely concealed disgust, the ingredients list of the rival brand. CARRAGEENAN was the other laughable ingredient.

89
comments:

I'm with Rex on REGRAB and STIED. Not pretty fill. Stared for a long time before SCHTICK came into focus. I'm not familiar with RAM TOUGH so that answer did not make me smile. I did like SPORES for puffballs--we used to pop them when we were kids to see the "smoke". My new word of the day is ESTIVAL.

I didn't love or hate this puzzle--just a medium rating on the enjoyment and difficulty factor.

Rex, I'm surprised at your extreme dislike of Eboli.This book isn't what you may think. And it's prominent enough for its own page in Wiki.Granted, its most important time was during WWII, but it says some very interesting things. Just read its story here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_stopped_at_eboli

Pianissimo, P P ...one more P and it means skip these notes because no one will be able to hear them.If ever a puzzle needed the xword fill of INRE, CCD, BCC, ENC, this one did. Its a letter, right? Still, enjoyed most of the theme answers and the interview at WordPlay gives some insight.

Yes, there was a recount. Apparently every jackass who tanked Puzzle 5 is calling in and whining about every last square, and so extra points are being awarded, perhaps even as we speak, to people I used to be ahead of. So it goes.

Overall a nice, fun solve. Normal speed for me, until I had TWO (and a half) squares left in KS/MO. 67A ASPS_OR(M)_ did NOT look like it was leading anywhere. Expecting a two word answer and could not shake that for 20 minutes. NHL today? LIAN O'Flynn? IO was pretty sure LIA_ for an Irish name was LIAM, but not totally. ASP'S HORNS/AS HORNS? Then what is "In the Valley of SLAH? And that was just the least screwy set of my missteps. But, eventually, there was the Homeric D'OH!

Herb RITTS (72A) was a total unknown but the crosses were easy.

Had HANSOM for 16D to start but it made 16A scatological, so no. LANDAU turned 29A from EDSIE into EDDIE Vetter, which sounded more likely. Not that I knew.

Megan P - Beer Pong is a college drinking game in which partially full beer cups are set at opposite ends of a long table. Teams alternate tossing ping-pong balls across the table into the cups. If they make it in, the other team drinks the beer in the cup. First team to have to drink all their cups loses. The game was recently reported - falsely - on Fox News as causing the transmission of STDs.

@Phillysolver: There is a short passage in Tchaikovsky's Pathetique Symphony actually marked pppppp which gives new meaning to your phrase "just skip these notes because no one will be able to hear them." This single passage has stymied generations of bassoonists who can never seem to play it quietly enough. Some conductors even substitute a bass clarinet in the passage to make it as quiet as possible.

When I was young and still learning the standard orchestral repetoire, I got to this passage on an old Bernstein recording. It got softer and softer and I kept turning up the volume so I could make out what was happening. I thought maybe the movement was ending? Wrong! This inaudible bassoon solo led directly to a thundering "big bang" of an agitated development section so loud that my speakers were completely blown out. Kind of scared the crap out of me too.

Hmmm...anybody know a good classical music blog for me to take this too?

I was a little lukewarm about today's puzzle offering, coming as it did after such a wonderful week of challenges. Still, there were pleasures to be had here, especially USE THE FORCEPS, LUKE and ASPS FOR ME. I actually laughed out loud at the former and grinned at the latter.

I'm annoyed for Rex and the others who dropped in the standings. It seems there is always some crybaby (or two or three) who cries foul at a competition like this. I suppose such behavior is to be expected, by I had hoped when one reached the upper echelons of puzzldom that grace and good sportsmanship would prevail. Dan, of course, provided the perfect example of graciousness at what must have been a difficult call. You don't see him crying to the judges about how he was wronged. Now Rex follows suit. Good for both of you.

Count me among those who found too many of the theme phrases cringe-inducing. On the other hand, I learned two new words, SEINER and ESTIVAL, that I had absolutely never, ever seen before. Spent minutes checking and re-checking the crosses to make sure that no other possibilities existed and then goggled to verify.

Complaint of the day: The 300 absolutely did NOT defend Sparta. They were very far from their hometown at Thermopylae, where they tried to prevent the Persians from invading Northern Greece. It's almost like saying the Americans defended the USA in the world wars. And as to the movie, it achieved the feat of getting almost every detail wrong about the historical event--probably more watchable b/c of this, but still...

@PhillySolver - you're meant to be so rapt and leaning forward in your seat that you do hear those notes :-)

@Rex et al - Are you thinking aquaduct? That might be a previous century, but aquifers are under most of us all the time.

re: scores of all types: I took students to a rated festival last week. All did well for their first time out and got "Excellents." But the certificates and ribbons included one "Superior." I asked for the correct set and was told I could just give the kid the upgrade. (I didn't.) No one people quibble about crosswords.

Listen to enough folk music from around the world and you will find you appreciate some of it more than others, and that it all grows on you. You will also start hearing it's influence in whatever music is your personal taste. I thought it was "hidey hole" anyway.

Speaking of folk music, I'm off to DC for a conference this week and then some sightseeing. Must remember the clock thing. We do DST in AZ, unless you're on the Navajo Reservation.

@Karen @Crosscan& @Chorister: You are all absolutely right that the final scores should be accurate. I just wish the correct numbers could have been figured out at the close of the tournament instead of being changes made quite a bit after the fact.

@Rex: I regret mentioning the extra E in Athlete. We all know spelling has nothing to do with intellect ... that particular mistake is a pet peeve of mine ... but it doesn't mean a thing in the scheme of things.

Re ACPT scoring: This time, each contestant can see his/her scored puzzles online, and my guess is that the corrections are due to people calling out scoring mistakes they found in their own puzzles. Of concern to me are not the after-the-fact corrections (I believe that an obvious mistake should be corrected--better late than never), but the fact that many mistakes were apparently made in the initial scores.

RE: the scoring. Yes, accuracy, hurray. But the rescoring is arbitrary, done only if someone asks for it, and therefore I think it's a load of crap. You could argue that the scores are now "more accurate," but unless every score is manually rechecked by an impartial third party, then the whole thing is tainted. I'm guessing most people are like me and accepted the final score without poring over every damned square hunting for an extra 25 points or whatever it is.

PS a misspelling is a misspelling. No need to regret mentioning it (though private mentions are preferred). I corrected "Athlete" (and "Charlize" - thanks, Crosscan)

@joho - I agree, and that was no doubt one reason they now scan the papers. However, technical problems meant many scanned papers weren't onlilne until several days after the Tournament ended, so there was no way of knowing about errors until then. Once they solve this, a posted time limit should be given after which results are final.

If a student on a math test comes and says the answer to this question is 4 and I wrote 4 but you marked it wrong, is it ok for the teacher to say "Yes, it is 4 but I'm not changing your mark?"

@Greene - Dan was indeed gracious, but what happened to him was exactly according to the pre-provided rules, not due to any error.

Isn't there a judge's errors blog I can be directed to? Three and out.

I just discovered this blog. I didn't realize this puzzle was so bad until I read here. Interesting. I think I'm going to learn alot here. Also, I don't get asps for me. Can someone help? Also, what interview? I can't find it. Sorry for all the questions.

SEINERS was new to me. So was SUINERS, which was what I had. S[vowel]S...French!

USE THE FORCEPS, LUKE is awesome. I thought "cooking with gas" was a much weaker base phrase than the "force" one. Agree that GOING... is lame, and I had a lot of difficulty parsing but kinda like LONG TIME NO SEEPS.

Not a great Sunday puzzle, with just a few high notes to me. Liked the Luke and the asps answers the best (Clue with Cleopatra = asp related) but I am still staring at the "built ram(ps) tough", that is one vague ad line.

@Greene, I'm still laughing about your comment; I will never forget this PPP... thing!

Never had rose tea, although I just googled it and it exists. I guess you can flavor tea with anything. I do like rosehip tea, though.

Doing a lot of puzzles is clearly helping me; Eniac came out of nowhere. Not so crazy about coif for bangs, but I like 35D B-plus.

I'm not high enough in the ranks to worry about my final standing.... Once a puzzle / tournament is behind me, it's on to the next.

Got the theme right away with gasps and assumed the ps would come at the end of all themes.

Never knew ravioli = little turnips. I'm sure you all know that turnips are the same shape as another wonderful tuber we all enjoy. And their tops are delicious as well. Better go look up some recipes.

That 1980's Breyer's ice cream commercial featured someone I knew: Fred Newman, not long out of Harvard Business School when I met him and clearly less interested in Wall Street than in acting. I would never have gotten "guar gum" if I hadn't paid attention to the commercial back then because of Fred.

I've read a lot of Italian literature, so the "Eboli" answer always comes quickly for me. "Stied" was appalling, and "Built ramps tough" had me stymied. I got the answer easily enough but the fact that "Built ram tough" came from a commercial was unknown to me. My husband had to explain.

@Crosscan: Yes, I see the point you are making, but I'm not certain I agree with your conclusion. I believe wherever graded competition exists, there is an implicit understanding that judging might be imperfect. I'm not saying this is desirable or fair; it just is. In the interests of organized competition, contestants usually acknowledge this potential failing and agree to abide by the rulings of the judges at the time of entry.

When a math student notices an error in the grading of his test paper, of course the teacher needs to acknowledge and correct the error. But a math test is not a national competition where the standings of multiple other contestants are affected by the quibblings of a few.

I think Rex makes a very compelling point about an even larger injustice, namely that unless an independent third party rescores all the entry grids, then the whole process is inaccurate and ultimately tainted. It doesn't appear that the current standings are any more accurate than they were before. Some carpers have just been moved a little bit higher in the ranks, so what's the point really? Would those same complainers be contacting Will Shortz if their grids had been overscored and their true ranking was lower?

I realize that Dan was abiding by the rules of the tournament, but experience teaches that even clearly articulated rules are no guarantee of gracious behavior by anybody and I've seen people raise a stink over far less than what befell Dan. His good manners and willingness to abide by the rules are inspirational and an excellent example for all of us to follow.

Student complaints about simple errors are fixable as you say. My policy when the complaint was about a judgment call on an essay or short answer question (this was chemistry, not math - YMMV) was to offer to regrade the ENTIRE paper. That was on the basis that I was as likely to have erred in a positive sense on other questions. Not many took me up on it.

This one was medium in difficulty and enjoyment for me. Agree with the clunkers already discussed but did like the FORCE and ASPS answers. The best thing about this puzzle is that the RITTS answer finally let me complete a BEQ from a couple of weeks ago that's been sitting on my desk.

@jeff in chicago - dittoBorn and raised in the beer capitol of the country and never heard of beer PONG, it must be a relatively new game because if it was around when we were in college our gang would have been the pros.

FORCEPS was especially unnerving to me, because it reminded me of the birth of my first daughter. I won't go into details, and it all turned out fine, but I strongly urge young parents to familiarize themselves with forceps BEFORE the labor. They can seriously freak you out.

@Greene...< raises hand > Yes, I contacted Doug about being overscored, and my re-ranking is now accurate. Feel free to debate if I'm being honorable or stupid. I also expect this problem to go away if they can get the extra bandwidth at the hotel to upload the scans right away.

I am glad that contestants are calling in and pointing out mistakes. The scoring and judging was much improved this year (thanks to Matt Ginsberg's new scanning system), but we need to get feedback so we can improve the accuracy.

My guess is that most "errors" can be attributed to the human aspect of the process and not the new scanning system. There are at least three types of error that come to my mind:

Error Type 1: A judge made a mistake, plain and simple - this can happen when the group has approximately 4900 puzzles (or to be more dramatic, over 1.5 million little squares) to check. [Puzzle 5, especially, had swaths of yellow highlighter marks]. In this case, the judge's initials are at the back of the puzzle which Doug Heller (the chief judge) can see. He can inform an unusually errant judge that he/she needs to watch it - and if this under-performance continues next year, he will garnish his/her wages! (Just kidding).

Error Type 2: This is a subtlety - let's say a solver wrote "ICAN" instead of "IMIN" and there are no crossing correct entries. It is possible that the judge splashed a yellow stripe through the wrong answer. According to the rules, though, the judge should only put a yellow mark on the C and the A (since the I and the N are correct letters!). This is a valid complaint and should be corrected. [There were many such instances in the puzzles where a common "wrong" answer had several correct letters and we had to watch out for these].

Error Type 3: This is the difficult one (where Rex's complaint may be valid) - a solver has put in a T, then erased it; the letter is barely visible. The intent seems to be an erasure but we can see the remnants of the T. In almost all cases at my table, a judge would turn to other judges and seek an opinion. Now here's the "rub": once you put a yellow highlighter on the paper, the erased T appears to stand out more clearly than it did before!! If you were looking at the scans and felt the T was obviously present, but the judge had previously ruled this an erasure, I am not sure how one makes this call!

This is probably TMI for most - but I wanted to take this opportunity for a shout-out to Doug and Matt for coordinating a fairly complex process with great composure.

I am sure this process will improve next year, so hope to see you there!

@Karen: Of course your intentions are honorable and I would never consider you stupid for reporting an error which lowered your ranking. On the contrary, your integrity sounds impeccable.

Perhaps the stupid one is me for shooting off my mouth about I process I was not fully knowledgeable of (thanks to Ashish for insights on some of the problems the judges faced), particularly since I didn't even attend the party in question. I should probably also learn to be a bit more trusting of people's motives. Karen, I offer you my most sincere apology.

@GreeneI happened to be listening to an Ashkenazy performance of Pathetique while doing the puzzle. My power amp shuts off automatically if there is no input for 15 seconds or so; this is one of a handful of works that requires me to flick the "always on" switch on the back of amp lest it turn off during long, quiet passages. Mahler No 2 is another...no blown speakers though :)

@ashish: Thanks also from me for the honest and informative explanation.

The whole business reminds me of the current debate raging in soccer circles about instant replay. In a low scoring game like soccer, a penalty unjustly given or withheld, or a goal unjustly denied or given b/c of the offside rule, can decide a game. Week after week, fans can see such bad decisions on TV via slomo replay, and the voices are getting louder demanding instant replay during a game in some form, taking American football as a precedent. And the sides are like the sides in today's discussion. The ones who do not want change argue that soccer refereeing has always been error-prone. Players and fans should understand that at the outset and get on with it. On the other side are people like me who believe that new technology "changes the game" and that for the sake of fairness as well as peace of mind the game should adapt.

Applied to the ACPT, it believe this: For the first 100 places or so, moving up or down by only a few places may mean getting a trophy (age, geographical area etc) or not, and if new technology enables us to see mistakes that would change rankings that matter in this sense, we should take advantage of it and correct the mistakes. It's only fair w.r.t. the people who would otherwise be denied a prize they have honestly earned. Farther down the rankings, it's for the birds and bees, I agree.

I loved it and I laugh every time I think of the one with asps or forceps. I couldn't wait to solve the next one. The only downside was seeing Rachel Raye's name. Apparently there is nowhere where she is not. I have nothing against her; it's just that no one should be allowed to use that much space in the world.

Now I'm feeling bad about my 2006 tournament, when my husband noticed after I came home that I ws super-slow (relatively speaking) on one puzzle and asked what happened to me on that puzzle. Well, nothing—the referee's hastily written "25" minutes remaining looked like a "20," and I was docked 125 points as a result. So I e-mailed the powers that be (I'd jotted down my minutes remaining on each puzzle, so I knew what the scoring error was), and the next year, Al Sanders, Katherine Bryant, and I exchanged the 5th, 6th, and 7th place trophies. Maybe I should've kept quiet—but Al and Katherine, like everyone at the tournament, are nice and honest people who wouldn't have asked that of me. I feel a teeny bit bad now, though.

And believe me, I noticed how neatly referee Vic Fleming wrote down my minutes remaining last weekend. Much appreciated!

I believe everyone who participates in the crossword championship should get a trophy! Same as high school, where everybody gets something on awards day! Also, all college students should get an A if they try hard! And anybody who wants some money should be able to tap into the government handout! And our grandchildren should get a trophy for having the largest debt in the history of the universe!

2007 I was 3rd in ny region (top 2 get trophies). I asked for where my errors were. They told me and said they discovered a scoring error. Moved me to 2nd. But 4th place guy moved up as well and I was back to 3rd. The judges say this is only my third comment.

@PhillySolver - thanks for helping me out on ppp. I like your explanation :-)

@joho - thanks for letting me know I am not alone in my crossword puzzle thoughts. I often wonder....

One of the worst scoring mistakes involved the 2004 Olympic Games. A gold medal was awarded to an American gymnast, Paul Hamm, instead of Yang Tae Young of S. Korea because the judges accidentally gave the wrong start value for one of his routines. A protest was lodged and taken to the highest possible authority. The verdict was - the games are over and the decision stands. The competition itself seems more important than the awards (unless, of course, money is involved). :-o.

I think landau refers to a hard top style during the bulgemobile era in which the back part of the roof was faux leather (plastic). Name goes back to a certain kind of horse-drawn carriage of the early 1900s I believe.

There were definitely a few cringes and a few awkward spots---got quite stymied on those two squares in Northern California, and really need to remember how SISALS is spelled---but overall a decent puzzle. Like retired_chemist said, it was a solid end to a really nice week of puzzles.

Use the Forceps was definitely great, I'm glad that was the first theme answer I figured out. Nothing quite lived up to that, but I did get a solid chuckle out of Long Time No Seeps. Not as crazy about Asps For Me, but I can at least appreciate it.

I admit, I filled in PONG a little too readily, and then changed in when the W in WILMA made me try out SWAMI. Looking back, even I should have known that didn't make sense. But BWANA is a great answer, and came a lot easier thanks to a D-list superhero. Hooray for reading. Also, easily the funniest clue I can ever imagine for GEORGE, well done.

Btw, anyone else surprised to see TIP OVER in the puzzle again so soon, and with the exact same clue? I thankfully learned my lesson Friday, as I had messed up and put in TOPPLED, so I liked getting it right this time.

On scoring, I can't help but think about bar trivia from a few weeks ago. We were told to guess the 10 films which have won the most Oscars, and put them in order. My team included Slumdog Millionaire in the 8-Oscars part of our list. Somehow, even though the question was based on the recent Oscars, the hosts hadn't updated; they just read the names of previous years' movies that won 8 or more Oscars.

When the mistake was pointed out, first he assumed that his list must be films with 9 or more, explaining why Slumdog wouldn't be on it. After that idea was debunked, he said something like "Oh, wow, I guess you're right. But I really should go with what's on my answer sheet." It was pretty ridiculous, and thankfully he changed his mind based on reactions.

I agree that not everyone goes over their graded puzzles, and that people hunting for extra points could ultimately skew things. That said, when confronted with a clear mistake in any particular square, I have trouble arguing against fixing that error. I wouldn't want to be the guy telling people that their scores are final even though wrong. Re-grading more than just the reported square seems like an ok compromise, but also potentially a lot of work...so, not an easy issue.

@rex -- I had to laugh at the music that would flush you out of a hiding place. On a related note, I recall reading recently that a shopping mall in Australia has started playing Barry Manilow music to drive away loitering teenagers....